Man charged with vandalizing Neillsville church says voice gave him instructions

NEILLSVILLE - A man charged with smashing religious items inside a Catholic church said a voice told him what to destroy, according to police.

The 42-year-old Lublin man told officers he blessed the altar at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Neillsville with snow before he started breaking things, according to court documents. The man, who was charged Monday in Clark County Circuit Court with burglary and criminal damage to religious property, said he took down the cross and broke its head because it wasn't Jesus.

He said he went "down the line" and broke anything the voice told him to break until it told him to leave the church, according to documents.

Police were called to the church at 6:48 a.m. Friday and saw that someone had tipped over and broken a large statue near the entry. Another small statue and pieces of it were broken all over the floor. A picture frame was broken, and the picture was torn apart.

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Two red granite holy water stands were blocking the entry to the main door and one was broken. Someone had also broken other statues and a handmade baptismal pool. The altar area was scattered with broken glass and candle wax. The vandal had broken a figurine and stuck a crucifix into it.

In the church's basement, another crucifix had been removed from the wall and smashed on the ground. A large picture was smashed on the ground and broken glass was all over.

Someone called police shortly after 9 a.m. Friday and said the man had vandalized the church. Officers met with the caller, who was not identified in court documents, who told them the Lublin man had been acting strangely for five days and admitted to the vandalism.

A woman who was in the same Neillsville home with the caller took the officers to the living room where the suspect was lying on a couch. When the officers tried to wake him, he "became irritable and made weird noises," according to court documents.

The man "was making noises I never heard anyone make before," one of the arresting officers wrote.

Officers handcuffed and restrained him and called for an ambulance.

The woman told police the man had been making strange comments about religion and its symbols during the previous couple of days. She said he called her at about 3 a.m. Friday and wasn't making any sense, and then came to her house at about 5:45 a.m., cold and shaking.

The woman said when she asked him if he had vandalized the church, he said yes in what she called a "demonic voice," according to court records. The woman said the suspect and another man had been quoting bible scripture and talking about religion lately.

The woman went to Marshfield Medical Center in Neillsville where the man had been taken by ambulance Friday morning, and he answered her questions in a "raised demonic voice" during most of their conversation, according to court documents. Officers, who were in the room during the conversation, told the woman to stop talking to him.

Clark County Circuit Judge Lindsey Brunette authorized an arrest warrant for the man on Monday. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 16 years in prison.